By Sean Holohan

After notching their first Sun Belt Conference tournament win Wednesday, the Troy soccer team is adding another first to their list as they advanced Friday to the Sun Belt Conference championship game with a 1-0 win over No. 3 seed Texas State at The Cage on the campus of the University of South Alabama.

Troy scored what ended up being the deciding goal early in the game’s third minute when Mallary Hedden headed in a Paige McMillan cross into the box. The goal was Hedden’s first of her career.

“We’ve been a second half team, especially in conference play. We talked about coming out and getting off to a better start,” head coach Jason Hamilton said. “It was great to get off to that kind of start, but we knew the game was long from over.”

The Trojans (16-5) will play for the Sun Belt Conference championship at 1 p.m. on Sunday against the winner of the South Alabama-Georgia Southern game.